Red
Retired1959-1972
Bright, bold, and a shade lighter than current day's Scarlet - meet Red. Produced from 1959 to 1972 by The Fiesta Tableware Company, it can evoke a range of emotions, but is commonly associated with hunger.
Production
Red was retired in 1972, so it is a hunt for secondhand pieces now. Fiesta Factory Direct is where the colors still being made are, if you are filling a set.
Shop Fiesta Factory Direct (opens in a new tab)Notes on Red
This is Red's second run. The original went off the shelf in 1943 when wartime uranium restrictions ended the glaze, and it took sixteen years to come back - reformulated, and here from 1959 until the line was retired in 1972. Visually it's very close to the 1936 version, close enough that color alone won't date a piece; shape and backstamp will. It arrived the same year as Medium Green and outlasted it by three years, making it one of the last colors standing at the end of the original run. It's also a shade lighter and brighter than modern Scarlet, which is the closest thing in production now.
Using Red on a table
Red carries enough color to lead a table on its own. Use it for the plates and let quieter pieces do the rest; two or three settings of it go a long way. Its mid lightness (L* 44) means most food reads against it without either washing out or vanishing. It separates strongly from a white cloth (5.5:1) and less so from dark wood.
Below, 5 combinations built only from colors Fiesta has actually produced. Each says which rule it follows, and which pieces you can still buy today.
Buy these to go with it
Red was retired in 1972, but these are all in production now - the set you can actually finish buying.
Opposite on the wheel
Evergreen sits roughly opposite Red in hue, which is the highest-contrast pairing the palette offers. The neutrals keep it from shouting.
All red
Every color here is from the red family, arranged light to dark. A single-family table reads calm and deliberate rather than busy.
- Rose, 1951-1959
-
Your color Red, 1959-1972
- Claret
Three-way split
Forest Green and Sapphire sit about a third of the way around the color wheel from Red in each direction. Evenly spaced hues stay lively without any one taking over.
- White
-
Your color Red, 1959-1972
- Sapphire
- Forest Green
Next-door hues
These sit within about 55° of Red on the color wheel. Neighboring hues blend instead of competing, which suits a table you want to feel warm rather than sharp.
- Rose, 1951-1959
- Antique Gold
-
Your color Red, 1959-1972
- Chocolate
Where Red sits in the line
Red took over from Rose, 1951-1959 as Fiesta's red, and is darker and more vivid than it - a complete change of direction rather than a reformulation (ΔE 25.7). In 1959 it arrived alongside Medium Green and took the place of Chartreuse, 1951-1959, Forest Green, Gray and Rose, 1951-1959 on the shelf. What else happened in 1959 →
Closest colors in the palette
Ranked by CIEDE2000 (ΔE) against Red. Under about ΔE 5 two colors are hard to tell apart side by side - useful when you are identifying an unmarked piece.
On the table alongside Red
9 colors were in production at the same time: